Marcos opens 2024 SONA admitting rice prices are costly

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday opened his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) confronting one of the most pressing issues of his administration—the retail prices of food staple rice.

"The hard lesson of this last year has made it very clear that whatever current data proudly bannering our country as among the best-performing in Asia, means nothing to a Filipino, who is confronted by the price of rice at 45 to 65 pesos per kilo," Marcos said in his report to the nation on Monday, July 22, 2024.

"Bagamat maganda ang mga istatistikang ito, wala itong kabuluhan sa ating kababayan na hinaharap ang realidad na mataas ang presyo ng mga bilihin, lalo na ang pagkain—lalo't higit, ng bigas," the President said.

(Although the statistics are good, these mean nothing to our countrymen who face the reality of high prices of goods, especially food, and most especially, rice.)

Rice inflation, as of June this year, stood at 22.5%, albeit lower than the 23% rate in May, was still at a high double-digit level.

In recent months, rice inflation trailed its highest levels in about 15 years, blamed on high prices of the agricultural commodity in the world market brought about primarily by India's export ban of its white basmati rice.

“Totoo, puwersa ng merkado — sa ating bansa at maging sa buong daigdig — ang siyang nagdidikta ng presyo. Bunsod ito, halimbawa, ng giyera, problema sa supply, at puwersa ng kalikasan, tulad ng El Niño na naranasan din sa ibang bansa. Subalit hindi na ito mahalagang alalahanin ng ating mga kababayang nabibigatan sa presyo ng bigas,” Marcos said.

(It is true that market forces —in our country and all over the world— dictate the prices. This was amid, for example, war, supply problems, and forces of nature such as El Niño, which was experienced by other countries. However, this is not something that our countrymen should be worrying about as they feel the burden of high rice prices.)

“Mahal kong mga kababayan, alam kong damang-dama ninyo ito. Hindi natin winawalang-bahala ang inyong mga hinaing at hirap na dinaranas. (My beloved Filipinos, I know what you feel. We are not turning a blind eye to your grievances and struggles),” the President said.

To reduce the rice prices, Marcos said that he reduced the tariff rate for imported rice.

Last month, the President issued Executive Order 62, which slashed the tariff rate for imported rice to 15% from the previous 35%.

The government expects the price of rice to go down by P6 to P7 per kilo as a result of the order.

In his SONA, Marcos said that reducing the rice import tariff rate was only a "pang gipitang solusyon lamang (solution amid trying times)."

"Sa kabila ng mga hamon na ating kinakaharap, nasaksihan natin ang pinakamataas na ani ng palay sa bansa nitong nakalipas na taon. Pumalo ito sa lagpas dalawampung milyong tonelada—ang pinakamataas na ani natin mula noong 1987," the President said.

(In spite of the challenges we are facing, we witnessed the country's highest paddy rice harvest this past year. This surpassed 20 million tons—our highest harvest since 1987.)

“Gayumpaman, ang ani na ito ay katumbas lamang ng labintatlong milyong tonelada ng bigas. Kulang pa rin ito para sa ating pangangailangan na labing anim na milyong tonelada ng bigas, kung kaya’t napipilitan tayong mag-angkat. Ngunit, lokal na produksyon pa rin ang ating mas bibigyan ng halaga,” Marcos said.

(However, this harvest was only equivalent to 13 million tons of rice. This was still not enough to cover our requirement of 16 million tons of rice, thus we are compelled to import. Nonetheless, we will still put a premium on our local production.)

The President said his administration will continue supporting the local agriculture sector to boost local production.

The President's third SONA comes on the heels of the Pulse Asia survey results released this July, which found that 76% of Filipinos disapproved of how his administration addressed inflation.

The 76% disapproval of the government's handling of inflation result in the Pulse Asia survey, taken from June 17 to 24, was a five-percentage point increase from the previous quarter's figure of 71%.

In contrast, only 5% approved of the government's performance in controlling inflation while 19% were undecided.

The survey found that only 4% of Filipinos believed the Marcos administration fulfilled its campaign promise of reducing rice prices to P20 per kilo. — VDV/RF, GMA Integrated News